Flyleaf – Memento Mori

As of yesterday, Flyleaf has a sophomore album, Memento Mori, or in Latin, “Remember, you will die”. Fair enough.

This album will rock your socks clean off. It will fuck you in the ears until you’re begging Lacey Mosley for more. Compromised of fourteen (-ish) songs of previously written material, this album is reminiscent of their first, self-titled album, but oh-so-much better.

Cleanly polished, Mosley’s cultivated voice really takes center stage. Not that her voice was by any means of less quality on their first album, but this time she’s really perfected it.

The album begins with “Beautiful Bride”, honestly, one of the harder tracks on the album, which was surprising. Vocally, Mosley’s got this alt-metal-ish early Alanis Morissette thing goin’ on, which makes me a little weak in the knees. After this song, however, they really went for less metal, more pop. It’s kind of odd. It’s not done in an in-your-face sort of way, though…it’s merely a minor undercurrent.

On their first album, it was easy to forget that they’re somewhat of a Christian band, but this time around, not so much. They’re very blatant about their faith, which while it may not be mine, really works for them. Think about it, religion is never an easy thing. No matter what it is or who you are, there will always be struggles. What better topic to make hauntingly complicated music to?

Two of the more overtly religious tracks on this album are two of the best, including “Swept Away” and “The Kind”. Other gems include “Again”, “Chasm”, “This Close”, “Missing”, and my personal favorite, “Tiny Heart”. As you can see by that list, the majority of this album is fucking fantastic. It does peter out with the last three tracks, “Treasure”, “Circle”, and “Arise”, but other than those three, I love every single track on this album.

All in all, this album is darkly melodic and just catchy enough to keep your attention almost all the way through. Well done, Flyleaf, well done. A

Flyleaf’s Site